Consumer News

TrueCar Releases February TrueTrends Report

February 16, 2011

TrueCar.com, the authority on new car pricing, trends and forecasts, has released its latest edition of the TrueCar TrueTrendsTM Report and reports that Nissan has shown the largest increase in discount percentage* from last month. Nissan overtook Mercedes-Benz at the top of the list this month by make with a jump of nearly a full percentage point. The top five remain the same with only Nissan/Mercedes (1/2) and Chevrolet/Lexus (4/5) swapping spaces. Dodge continues to hold the third spot on the list.

Following is the February TrueTrends Report:

February TrueTrends: Performance Scorecards
The TrueCar Scorecard measures the overall performance of a brand or manufacturer based on pricing, sales, incentives, customer loyalty, market share, and inventory turn data.

February TrueTrends: TrueCar’s Price Flex Score
The TrueCar Price Flex Score measures the elasticity of transaction price by model. The Price Flex Score calculation dynamically incorporates the factors that affect price variance including the model’s transaction price range, current inventory and sales data. A vehicle experiencing extremely low inventory and a small range of transaction prices will have a low Price Flex Score. Don’t expect much of a discount from the TrueCar average transaction price on a vehicle with a low Price Flex Score. If a vehicle has a high Price Flex Score, however, you have the potential to strike a deal significantly below (or above, if you’re not careful!) the TrueCar average transaction price.

February TrueTrends: Greatest Discounts
Featuring the highest discounts on 2010 and 2011 models. Luxury sport cars, vans, luxury cars, and midsize cars offer the greatest discounts at an average below MSRP of about 7%. Model year 2010 makes including Volkswagen, Saab, Volvo, and Chevrolet offer the biggest discounts. The top 2011 makes with the biggest discounts are Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Dodge, and Chevrolet. The industry discount is 5.6%

February TrueTrends: Greatest Price Drop Month over Month
For each body type, TrueCar.com tracks the average transaction price for each trim and lists vehicles with the greatest drop in price month over month. This months greatest drop in price falls under the luxury car segment with $3,412 difference from last month on the 2011 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

February TrueTrends: Shortest and Longest Days in Inventory
Subcompact cars, sport cars, and vans are where the best potential inventory-based discounts will be seen. On average, subcompact cars are staying in inventory for 94 days, while sports cars and vans are on-lot for 84 days and 78 days respectively. SUV’s overall are moving off the lots quickly. Luxury SUV’s have an average inventory stay of 39 days, Small SUV’s at 42 days, Midsize SUV’s at 44 days, and Large SUV’s at 51 days.

February TrueTrends: Model Year Share
Model year share shows the percentage of 2010 and 2011 model year vehicles sold within the last month. The makes with the highest percentage of 2010 model year share are smart, Saab, and Dodge. Model year 2010 vehicles make up 15.3% of vehicles available. BMW has the highest share of 2011 models with 97.2%, Jaguar and Chevrolet follow closely with 95.8% and 95.4% respectively.